﻿NO. 2 SMITHSONIAN EXPLORATIONS, I924 87 



is that most of them were disturbed during prehistoric times. It is 

 quite apparent that enemy peoples had entered the rooms and ruth- 

 lessly disarranged the bodies, perhaps in search of turquoise and other 

 treasures highly prized by primitive peoples of the Southwest. With 

 the cultural objects recovered by the Expedition are many jewels of 

 such excjuisite beauty and artistic merit as to have proven entirely 

 irresistible to those aborigines not related to the former inhabitants 

 of Pueblo Bonito. 



In the large number of earthenware vessels collected from these 

 four burial chambers and elsewhere two outstanding types of orna- 

 mentation appear. Although these types were frequently found 

 directly associated with each other, one is thought to belong essentially 

 to the original Bonitians while the other is believed more characteristic 

 of their neighbors of the later period. Chronologic studies made in 

 the two principal refuse mounds and about the outer wall of the 

 pueblo illustrate a gradual development of local pottery technique 

 throughout the entire period during which Pueblo Bonito was inhab- 

 ited. But a certain perplexity still obtains in the evidence relating to 

 this ceramic material. This doubt is due mainly to the fact that the 

 later arrivals were obviously the first to abandon the village and that 

 all serviceable utensils they left behind were subsequently salvaged 

 by those families which still clung to their ancestral home, the older 

 or pioneer section of Pueblo Bonito. 



Several of the baskets recovered from the four burial rooms are 

 of types rarely, if ever before, recovered from prehistoric ruins other 

 than cliff-dwellings. Shallow, elongated trays of unusually fine weave 

 and deep, cylindrical baskets' of rather coarser fabric are included 

 in the collection. In addition, there were obtained bifurcated baskets 

 such as have been found heretofore only in cave villages of north- 

 eastern Arizona and southeastern Utah. Three of the earthenware 

 vessels in the season's collection simulate the general form of these 

 two-legged affairs of unknown import. 



The Expedition of 1923 uncovered a puzzling network of founda- 

 tion walls on the outer northeast side of the great ruin. This series 

 was still further exposed during the past summer and it is expected 

 that the remaining portion will be brought to light in 1925, the final 

 year of the Pueblo Bonito project. The fact that these interlacing 

 walls lie buried under many feet of blown sand makes their exposure 

 a slow and arduous task. The studies already pursued in this area 

 suggest that these foundations were prepared, but never utilized, 

 for a contemplated and sizable addition to the village. 



